


Passing Through the Looking Glass

by Zakad



Series: All My Ghosts are at Rest [6]
Category: Bleach, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Tag, Everybody Lives, Except Gatou (Naruto), Feels, Gen, Great Noble Family Shiba (Bleach), Uchiha Clan-centric, Uzumaki Clan-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 23:59:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18304151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zakad/pseuds/Zakad
Summary: In this world, Haku and Zabuza survive. It takes a lot of unseen effort to get that point.





	Passing Through the Looking Glass

Kurosaki Ichigo saves Haku’s life indirectly and unintentionally in two ways.

The first way is this:

Ichigo is a good student. He doesn’t just take what his teachers give him and let the knowledge sit. He thinks critically about the information, applies it as best he can, seeks to learn more on his own, and experiments.

Shiba Kukaku, Head of the (reinstated) Great Noble House Shiba and fireworks-maker extraordinaire, is thrilled to learn this about her cousin and teaches him everything she knows about making fireworks. Ichigo has a talent for destruction that blends nicely with the science of pyrotechnics and learns everything she offers to teach.

When Ichigo and Uryu leave Soul Society to search for the near-mythical Elemental Countries, loaded down by their friends and family with enough treasure and trade goods to fund a small army for a decade, he takes with him his knowledge of fireworks, gunpowder, and Shiba-style kido-magic and a thirst to improve his technique and make Kukaku proud. Ultimately, Ichigo becomes one the most profitable small-business owners in the entire Elemental Countries. (A fact discovered in the dismantling of ROOT, which keeps extensive records on the guardians of Konoha’s lone jinchuriki.)

When Ichigo finally learns how chakra works from helping Naruto with his schoolwork, he starts researching how to give his customers more bang for their buck by enhancing his fireworks with chakra. It’s a slow process when all he has is an Academy student’s understanding, but his first break comes when Naruto has a lesson on exploding tags.

Naruto loves using exploding tags. He’s good at making them too, which isn’t much of a surprise when Ichigo’s remembers his first and last visit to Uzu when it was still an active village and not the ruins of one. It isn’t hard to convince Naruto to ask Iruka for more advanced material on exploding tags. He comes home with a book on mid-rank exploding tag techniques, which contains page after page of variations.

Ichigo and Naruto try making all of them in rapid succession. Uryu pitches a fit when one variation produces a sonic boom that destroys half of his distilling equipment and orders them outside to annoy the neighbors instead. 

(Joke’s on Uryu, all of their neighbors moved out the minute they heard Naruto had moved in and Ichigo had bought property beside them, behind them, and catty-corner to theirs at a steal. Miyagi-san directly across the street was the lone holdout. Out of deference, Ichigo left the houses on either side of him standing, advertising them as rental property. The rest he demolished. Uryu appreciated the addition of the outdoor archery range though he still had to practice his Quincy techniques in the Urahara-style pocket-dimension beneath the basement.)

The number of variations in the mid-rank book give Ichigo a place to work from. He manages to break down the basics of true sealing and starts applying them to his fireworks. He does the most dangerous work while Naruto busy at the Academy and only blows himself up a handful of times. Uryu is unsympathetic but nonetheless helps him clean up the destruction to avoid upsetting Naruto.

Ichigo’s second breakthrough comes in the form of Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke, as sole surviving heir to the powerful Uchiha Clan, has unfettered access to all of the Uchiha’s known techniques, most of which were written down so shinobi who didn’t develop the clan dojutsu could still learn them. Several of these techniques, like the Great Fire Ball, are Uchiha signatures that every member of the clan is expected to know. Sasuke, as a child with no other living family, has no one to help him learn any of those techniques.

It takes a year of friendship with Naruto, a year to observe the weird little family Ichigo, Uryu, and Naruto have made together, and a year of slowly growing trust, but eventually Sasuke asks Ichigo if he can help with some stuff at the Uchiha Compound.

After Ichigo swears not to tell anyone, “some stuff” ends up meaning working through the scrolls of the Uchiha Clan jutsu and helping Sasuke learn to perform them correctly. It’s actually easier than helping Naruto with his homework. Naruto’s brain works sideways, and Ichigo can relate, but that means picking apart every problem at every angle until they find one that works. All Sasuke really needs is a methodical break down of the jutsu, a second opinion when he gets stuck, and some quiet encouragement, and he can figure out most of the jutsu appropriate for genin or low-level chunin a matter of days. He’s not the genius his brother was rumored to be, but Sasuke’s is the best student in his class for a reason.

It takes another year, a year in which Sasuke slowly moves things out of his apartment and into the room next to Naruto’s, a year in which Sasuke and Naruto make another close friend in the form of Sakura, but eventually Sasuke tells Ichigo he has permission to use the Uchiha Clan techniques as long as he doesn’t teach anyone else.

This is a big deal, no matter how casually Sasuke tried to play it off, Ichigo thanks him formally. Then Ichigo starts working to combine all of the amazing fire and lightning jutsu he’s been learning with his fireworks using seals as a medium.

The end result is that when Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura leave on their first mission, Ichigo sneaks Naruto his first successful product: a roman candle that, when lit with a fire jutsu, will emit three increasingly powerful fire dragons that roar into existence before crashing into each other and exploding in a perfect chrysanthemum bloom. If lit normally without chakra, it’s just a regular roman candle that can double as a flare. Ichigo makes it very clear that Naruto is only to use it in an emergency.

Trapped in a dome of ice mirrors, Naruto decides he’s in an emergency, points the roman candle at Haku, and has Sasuke light it with a lick of fire-breath.

The first dragon cracks the mirror holding Haku. The second dragon shatters the mirror holding Haku and incidentally all of the other mirrors. The third dragon sends Haku flying across the bridge into Zabuza and flings them both over the side of the railing. The perfectly formed chrysanthemum bloom is almost gilding the lily when it scorches the two shinobi and sends the hurtling them at high speeds into the waves below.

After the fight, Naruto decides he may have overreacted given how he and Sasuke recover at basically the same speed once Sakura plucks out the senbon. In contrast, Haku breaks half his ribs and almost drowns. 

The point is: the confusion caused by the roman candle slows everything down enough that no one is dead before Gatou arrives with his army of thugs. Zabuza is pissed off and really worried about Haku, even though he’s terrible at showing it, and kills most of the thugs and Gatou before the adrenaline wears off. Team 7 and the angry mob of Wave citizens scare off the rest. And before he really thinks about it, Naruto invites Zabuza and Haku to stay at his house until they’re better.

Kakashi and Zabuza are the only ones to have an inkling of how the battle on the Great Naruto Bridge might have gone without Naruto’s ballistic redirection of their priorities. Neither of them say a word to the kids--the first of many silent agreements between the two--but without that roman candle someone important would have died not just some scuzzy crime boss and a bunch of hired help.

Zabuza and Haku return with Team 7 to Konoha and a new future.

-0-0-0-0-0-

The second way Ichigo saves Haku is even less direct but spares his ribs and goes something like this:

Sasuke isn’t their kid legally. Not the way that Naruto is officially their ward by order of the Hokage. But by the time Sasuke moves out of his lonely apartment and into their house permanently, Ichigo and Uryu see him as their kid. (Ichigo and Orihime had only ever had the one. But Uryu, too afraid of Soul Society’s reaction toward any children bearing his bloodline, had ended up adopting dozens between his time in the Living World and Soul Society. He is highly accustomed to taking in strays.) 

Ichigo, in the way of good parents, starts to think about how to help Sasuke achieve his life’s goal. Ichigo doesn’t really see how Sasuke killing his brother would help things. Uryu is the one with more experience in taking vengeance for his family. So Ichigo focuses on the restoring the Uchiha part of Sasuke’s decision.

Under Kukaku’s tutelage, Ichigo learned about fireworks and about the history of the Shiba before, during, and after their exile. The fireworks were the best part, but Ichigo was always something of a closet nerd and he enjoyed learning about all the weird traditions and responsibilities that were part and parcel of being a Noble House. He did not enjoy having to practice any of the weird traditions or drill in etiquette, but when Kukaku insisted he didn’t say no.

(Part of Ichigo suspects that Kukaku had wanted him to take over as head of Shiba instead of Ganju. Before things in Soul Society got tense and Ichigo and Uryu decided to leave, he was considering agreeing if she asked. After the last incident, it became a moot point.)

When Sasuke talks about restoring his clan, Ichigo thinks back to his lesson with Kukaku. He imagines that being a noble clan in a century old village is less complicated than being a Great Noble House in Soul Society, but he doesn’t know the details, so in straight-forward Ichigo fashion, he asks. 

Sasuke stalls out. He doesn’t know. He was the spare to a genius older brother. They grew up in a relatively peaceful time in the village, and his brother was unlikely to have died young, so his parents never attempted to teach Sasuke the responsibilities of a future clan-head. Most of what he knows he remembers from sitting with his brother during his lessons. The emotional roller coaster set in motion by all this recollection breaks through the block Sasuke set on his emotions. For the first time since the massacre of his family, Sasuke starts to weep.

Ichigo is relieved they’re having this conversation on the Uchiha property rather than at the house. Naruto would want Sasuke to stop crying and being happy, and Sasuke would force himself to stop out of shame. With no witnesses but Ichigo and surrounded by the ghosts of memories, Sasuke cries himself into exhaustion. Ichigo carries him home and tucks him into bed and tells Naruto that Sasuke wore himself out but doesn’t mention how.

Then Ichigo explains the situation to Uryu. The only option available to them is research.

Uryu sets the children a mission to interrogate the clan children in their class.  The goal is to find out what is expected of a clan heir and their future responsibilities. To make it interesting, Uryu adds that they shouldn’t get caught asking. Five of their classmates are outright heirs and Kiba is second in line after his sister. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura report back with information on five of the clans. The can’t manage to ask the Nara heir anything without him asking pointed questions back.

Ichigo helps by hunting down the village’s founding charter. In a shinobi village, gossip rampages like wildfire but information is strictly controlled. Clanless civilians only have access to the government controlled newspaper and whatever bits and pieces their shinobi customers are willing, or ordered, to share. But all adult citizens of Konoha, shinobi and civilian alike, are required to swear an oath of loyalty to the village itself, which means even civilians like Ichigo and Uryu are permitted full access to the village's legal code.

(In truth, Uryu has the best understanding of Konoha’s military status by dint of working in the hospital. The Elemental Countries do not have anything remotely close to the idea of doctor-patient confidentiality. Patient privacy is habit heldover from the Warring Clans Era rather than policy. If medical records are sealed, then it’s because they are classified for one reason or another. The whole thing drives Uryu up the wall and Ichigo has listened to him rant about it often enough that he can nod and grunt in the right places without needing to pay attention. It’s helpful, but not the kind of information Sasuke will need just yet.)

It would be easier to find what they needed if one of them were a shinobi too. The Uzumaki Clan Head in Uzu had offered the option to Ichigo and Uryu both after seeing them fight. But Uryu was understandably reluctant to tie himself to a military organization, and Ichigo wanted to see more of the Elemental Countries before settling down. Ichigo tries not to dwell on what-ifs and tells himself that being a shinobi in Uzu wouldn’t have affected the situation here in Konoha.

After emerging victorious from a pitched paperwork battle with the records office, Ichigo possesses a copy of the original village charter and all of its amendments. Listed within the lengthy legal document are all the qualifications and requirements of a clan head, which are outlined in the same dry, serious voice that wrote the Academy charter. (Uryu and Ichigo have read through the Academy charter and its amendments so many times, they can recite it word for word.)

The laws of a barely century-old village aren’t as complicated as those of Soul Society with its millenia of legal tradition. But Ichigo didn’t account for the complexities involved in bringing together clans with centuries of bloodshed between them. It’s not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, but once Sasuke understands what Ichigo found, he becomes determined to work through the whole thing. 

In the end, Sakura and Naruto do just as much reading as Sasuke. Sakura is not part of a clan and still too young to think about marrying into one. But working as a shinobi means working with the various clans and understanding their roles in the village. Naruto is less convinced of the necessity, but if Sasuke and Sakura are studying the clan laws, then he does too. He has more fun trying to imagine the reasons for the various amendments, but he still pays attention. 

All of this effort pays off in Zabuza and Haku’s favor when Team 7 is reporting their unusual mission to Wave to Sandaime and the Hokage makes noise about sending the pair off to T&I for processing.

Naruto throws a fit. He invited Zabuza and Haku back to his house not to be tortured. Naruto isn’t the sort of shinobi to break his promises or go back on his word. 

(It’s an attitude Naruto has learned from observing Ichigo and Uryu, not something either of them has explicitly said or even encouraged. Shinobi have to break promises professionally. For shinobi the only promises that are supposed to matter are the oaths to the Hokage and the village.)

“We cannot let two foreign shinobi wander around the village without supervision or knowing their purpose here,” says Sandaime reasonably.

“They’re here because I invited them. I accepted their parole as head of the Uzumaki Clan. If they do something bad, it’s on me and we all three go to T&I. But otherwise, Zabuza and Haku are left alone,” declares Naruto.

This announcement produces a not-insignificant amount of yelling, much to the consternation of Zabuza and Haku who are waiting anxiously outside the Hokage’s office.

Sandaime attempts to protest at first. But Naruto can counter all of his arguments.

The Uzumaki are already recognized as a pre-existing clan. There are no other candidates competing with Naruto for the head position. The Uzumaki have served the village in good faith for at two consecutive generations. Members of the Uzumaki in Konoha have paid all of their dues and taxes in a timely fashion. The Uzumaki support the village financially by owning stock in one civilian business.

“Kurosaki’s fireworks company does not have any other financial backers or employees,” says Sandaime. “It can’t be counted as a village business separate from the clan.”

Naruto waves his hand. “Doesn’t matter. I do own 20% of Teuchi’s ramen stand.”

“Since when?” hisses Sakura.

“I went with Ichi-nii and Ryu-nii and Sasuke when they shook down the bank to release the Uchiha’s financial papers. They were on a roll, so I asked the bank guys if they were holding on to anything of mine. And they gave me the stuff for Teuchi’s. I even talked to Teuchi about it, see if he wanted to buy it back. And he said no,” explains Naruto.

Sandaime frowns. “That investment was not made by your Uzumaki parent.”

Naruto narrows his eyes. “Yeah? Well I own it now, which makes it an Uzumaki business. And it means I meet all the requirements of a one-member Clan. It’s doesn’t need to be ratified in any assembly since I’m announcing it front of the Hokage. And as Clan Head I can invite foreign shinobi into the village at my discretion as potential new members of my clan.”

Sandaime sags in his seat for a brief moment then he nods. “Very well. Are there any other announcements you would like to make as the new Uzumaki Clan Head?”

Naruto thinks about it. “The Uzumaki are officially allying with the Uchiha.”

Sasuke looks touched. Sandaime tries not splutter. Official political alliances between clans are rare. The only one in the village that has lasted is the Ino-Shika-Cho combination that predated the foundation of Konoha. Naruto decides he and Sasuke are going to change that starting now.

In one fell stroke, Naruto promotes himself to the position of clan head and keeps Zabuza and Haku out of T&I. For Zabuza, the visit would have been unpleasant but ultimately nothing to worry about. For Haku, a certain pattern to his thoughts, a degree of selflessness pushed unhealthily far, would have him flagged for a psychological evaluation. This evaluation would make its way to the desk of Shimura Danzo. Danzo, director of ROOT, would not read the report and see a loyal young man but would see instead a tool to serve Konoha and to use as leverage against one of the last of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

As much as Ichigo indirectly changes Haku’s fate and saves him from death, he also manages to save Haku from a fate worse than death.

-0-0-0-0-0-

If Haku thinks of Kurosaki as saving him at all it is in this way:

The warm light of dawn shines on Haku face through the open curtains. He comes awake slowly, peacefully. He can hear Zabuza-sama breathing deeply—too much of a shinobi to snore—and the sound fills Haku with overwhelming, exquisite relief. He sits for a long time watching Zabuza-sama breathe and feeling content.

Haku forces himself to get up so he won’t start to cry. He walks to the window and peers out at the view. There is no neighboring house on this side of the property. Instead he sees a plentiful copse of young trees. Several are in the late stages of flowering or bearing young, new fruits. From the second story window, Haku can see the glimmerings of a pattern in their placement.

Haku draws the curtains closed and steps away. Zabuza-sama hasn’t stirred and Haku is happy to let him sleep while he scouts the environment he was too tired to examine the night before. Haku blushes at the hazy memory of Zabuza-sama carrying him up the stairs after dinner. 

Haku turns to the clothespress and draws out a pale mint under-robe and a pale blue sleeveless yukata. The fabric is sturdy but breathes well and is soft to the touch when Haku dresses. It’s one of several outfits he assembled from Ishida-sensei’s large collection of hand sewn garments. 

Naruto assured him that Ishida-sensei was happy for them to be worn. The doctor made the clothes as hobby and a form of stress relief and was more likely to donate the clothing rather than wear it himself. Haku had examined the sheer number of items packed into the room, reflected on the trip back to Konoha in the company of Naruto and his teammates, and decided Ishida-sensei must be remarkably even-tempered to produce so little.

Sliding the door open, Haku stretches his sense into the hallway. There’s no one waiting for them and no movement from any of the occupied rooms. Their guest room is on what Naruto calls the boring side of the house. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura’s rooms are in the west wing. (Sakura stays over often enough to have her own room, which is almost as well decorated as the boys’.) Kurosaki-san and Ishida-sensei both sleep in the east wing in separate bedrooms.

Haku locates the closest washroom, rinses his face, and sets out to explore. He decides quickly that the house is unnecessarily large. Upstairs and downstairs, the majority of the rooms are empty of anything including furniture or basic decoration. Along the short hall the doors stand open on vacant rooms waiting for occupants who may never come. It gives Haku the impression that the house is haunted. It’s a silly thought that Haku can’t shake, and he retreats outside for the warmth of the sun.

Haku finds a small garden filled with plants that prefer shade tucked into a corner of the inner courtyard. Some are just there for decoration, but he sees more than a few with medicinal properties. The rest of the space is filled by some outdoor furniture, a sunken fire-pit, and several decorated poles which are just the right height to create a covered awning for outdoor parties. Haku walks along the wide, finished engawa and wonders why their hosts have so much space and filled it with so little. 

“Morning, Haku!” shouts Naruto stirring Haku from his reverie.

Haku has reached the end of the veranda and is facing the backyard. Surrounded by trees on all sides, the yard matches the house in scope. One side there is a flower garden already beset by adventurous butterflies and bumblebees. A stone path wanders between the beds and leads into the copse Haku noted from the window. On the opposite side, there is vegetable garden which Naruto is happily watering. Far from the house, but only two-thirds of the way to the tree line is a separate free standing building, tighty shut against the night and prying eyes.

The empty space between the gardens, the hut, and the back-porch of the house is large enough to hold another more reasonably sized-house.

“Good morning, Naruto,” says Haku. He has been seen and rather than retreating into the silent house, he goes to join the sunny boy.

Naruto’s garden is laid out somewhat haphazardly. But there are helpful handwritten-signs along each row that indicate what is growing where. A line of cages has card that reads “Sasuke’s Gross Tomatoes” with a red blob sporting Sasuke’s ducktail hairstyle. The signs are faded and childish. 

“Did you make these?” asks Haku touching a fingertip to the nearest closest sign. It’s attached to a block of wood and sealed with some kind of epoxy.

“I did,” says Naruto. “I was eight and Ichi-nii was working really hard to get my calligraphy up to standard. I had to make dozens before any of them were readable. But we set the failures on fire, so I didn’t get bored trying.”

Haku smiles at the thought of a young Naruto working hard with ink and brush. He wonders what prompted the lesson.

“That was the year I moved in with Ichi-nii and Ryu-nii,” says Naruto. “We picked out everything we wanted to grow over the winter and planted the garden in the spring. I think Ryu-nii was hoping I’d like vegetables more if I got fresh ones.”

“You don’t like vegetables?” asks Haku looking at the large garden in front of him. 

Naruto shrugs. “I really just like watering. And weeding, too. I guess. It’s fun to wake up early and work outside. And vegetables are okay, I guess. But don’t tell Ryu-nii or he’ll make me eat more of them.”

Haku tries to reconcile this childish, peaceful Naruto who hides his like for vegetables with the defiant shinobi he fought on the bridge in Wave. It’s almost impossible, until he remembers waking up feeling safe and full and clean with his most precious person in arm’s reach. If this is what safety feels like, if this is what Zabuza-sama wants for Kiri, then Haku no longer has to wonder why Zabuza-sama works so hard for the village that rejected them.

“Your house is nice,” says Haku.

Naruto looks at him askance. “Most of the kids in class said it’s creepy ‘cause it’s mostly empty.”

“Well, yes,” admitss Haku. “Why do you have so many empty rooms?”

“None of us have a lot of stuff, and Ichi-nii and Ryu-nii really just wanted it because it was on a big lot,” says Naruto. He points at the closed off building. “That’s Ichi-nii’s fireworks workshop.”

“That does explain why it’s so far from the trees,” says Haku placing a protective hand over his tender ribs. Between Sakura and Sasuke, they managed to heal most of the damage. Haku thinks that’s half the reason Zabuza-sama agreed to come to Konoha with Naruto.

“I’m not sorry,” says Naruto pointedly not looking at Haku.

Haku doesn’t know how to articulate to Naruto how delighted he was to learn of Zabuza-sama’s care for Haku’s life. Or how badly the fight with Gatou and his horde of mercenaries could have gone if either side had wiped the other out.

“Neither am I,” says Haku instead. “Are all the houses in this area so large?”

Naruto laughs. “No. Just this one. Hey, if you want to see something cool, you can go look at the archery range. Ryu-nii’s practicing since it’s his day off.”

“I think I will,” says Haku.

Haku skirts wide around the fireworks shed and walks through the double layer of trees. He comes to a stop at the edge of an impressively sized archery range.

Ishida-sensei is backed as far as he can possibly at one end of the field without being in the trees. At the other end, wooden targets slide across double strands of ninja wire one high and one low. The targets are weighted so they move at random. The tilting and and turning of the targets makes the wires move up and down unpredictably. Ishida-sensei calmly fires arrow after arrow, never speeding, never hesitating, yet hitting a perfect bullseye every time.

Haku watches in silent awe. He can recognize a master at work, even if archery is normally skill typically reserved for nobles hunting for sport and peasants armed with cheap crossbows hunting for food.

When Ishida-sensei empties his quiver, he picks up a remote and shuts down the moving targets. Haku hides his surprise. Radio-triggered remotes are expensive and easy to interfere with. That’s why shinobi use built-in timers or chakra-triggers when they set explosives. Then again, if someone accidentally sets off Ishida-sensei’s targets, the worst that will happen is too much noise.

“Good morning, Haku,” says Ishida-sensei as he walks by to retrieve his arrows.

“Good morning, Ishida-sensei,” says Haku pacing him. “That was beautiful.”

“Thank you,” said Ishida-sensei. “Are the clothes to your taste?”

Haku touches the hem of his sleeve. There are small, intricate crosses embroidered around the edges, pretty without being feminine. Outside of infiltration missions, the yukata and under-robe are some of the nicest Haku’s ever worn.

“They’re lovely, thank you,” says Haku.

“If you want anything specific, let me know,” says Ishida-sensei.

There are stationary targets at the end of the field, large logs with bales of hay fitted to the front. The hay has to be for the arrows. Haku can see marks left by kunai and shuriken dug deep into the logs themselves. 

The lower rung of moving targets as sunk beneath the stationary ones. Ishida-sensei plucks his arrows free with ease. The upper row of moving targets is too tall to reach comfortably. Haku is about to offer his assistance when Ishida-sensei jumps light as a feather to the top of the closest log and begins retrieving the rest of his arrows.

“You are too generous,” says Haku a beat late. He remembers Naruto saying Ishida-sensei and Kurosaki-san were civilians, but given the demonstration he just witnessed, Haku finds that hard to believe.

“I like doing it,” says Ishida-sensei. He jumps back to the ground and frowns at Haku. “Have you eaten breakfast?”

Haku’s stomach rumbles in answer. He blushes from embarrassment. He had eaten his fill at dinner. There was no reason to be hungry again already.

“Feel free to help yourself to anything in the kitchen,” says Uryu. “Breakfast is usually informal when we have the same days off. If you need help finding something, Naruto and Kurosaki are both awake now.”

“Thank you,” says Haku. He will see to making breakfast for Zabuza-sama and himself. It will be nice to have access to a well-stocked kitchen for a change.

Haku walks away from the archery range and through the trees and freezes. Naruto and Hatake are both sitting on the edge of the veranda drinking tea, but that’s not what makes him stop.

Kurosaki-san is standing in the open field holding a sword almost as long as he is tall and working his way through a kata. Haku isn’t one for sword-work, he prefers his needles and their non-lethal potential, but he has spent most of his life following at Zabuza’s heels and knows the difference between a real swordsman and a guy with a sharp stick. Kurosaki-san is a master swordsman as much as Ishida-sensei is a master archer.

Haku watches for a minute longer. Then he realizes he doesn’t know when Kurosaki started or when he’ll finish. He races across the yard, back into the house, and upstairs in the room where they spent the night. Zabuza-sama is still asleep.

Haku touches his shoulder and shakes him gently. However much Haku would like for Zabuza-sama to get more rest, he knows Zabuza-sama would rather see Kurosaki-san drilling with his sword.

“What is it?” asks Zabuza snapping awake.

“Kurosaki-san is outside practicing with a sword,” says Haku. “He looks skilled.”

“Lead the way,” says Zabuza grabbing Kubikiribocho from where it lies again the wall.

Haku guides him downstairs and outside. They come to a stop next to Hatake and Naruto. Hatake looks tired but not as terrible as he did. He barely even acknowledges their approach. His eyes are fixed on Kurosaki. Other hand, Naruto waves at them both and pats the empty space beside him. Haku sits down and lets his legs dangle from the engawa. Zabuza won’t sit with Kubikiribocho strapped to his back.

“Here, Haku, have some tea,” says Naruto.

He forces an earthenware cup into Haku’s hands. It’s hot but not steaming. Haku takes a sip. The lemongrass and ginger is bracing. Haku takes another sip and delights in tea he didn’t have to prepare. (It’s not that Zabuza-sama won’t make them food if Haku can’t, but really, it’s better for everyone’s digestive health if Haku makes the food.)

“That’s not a kata I recognize,” says Zabuza-sama.

“Neither do I,” say Hatake.

“Ichi-nii made it up to go with Zangetsu,” says Naruto. “That’s the sword’s name.”

Haku frowns slightly. Shinobi weapons do not typically have names unless they are famous like the seven swords the Swordsmen of the Mist.

“Is Kurosaki-san a samurai?” asks Haku.

“I don’t think so,” says Naruto. “I think he was part of an army. But it must have been a weird army because nobody got the same kind of sword.”

Hatake starts at that and Zabuza-sama grunts in surprise. Haku can’t imagine an army with enough wealth to personalize a weapon for each soldier. But given the amount of money Kurosaki-san and Ishida-sensei were willing to spend on a house for three people, maybe Haku shouldn’t be surprised.

“Was Ishida-sensei in the army too?” asks Hatake.

“No,” says Naruto.

Haku isn’t the only one to glance at Naruto. That was an extremely firm denial. But Naruto doesn’t look interested in explaining.

Instead he says, “Kakashi-sensei, now that I’m a clan head will ANBU stop watching our house all the time?”

Haku almost chokes on his tea, which manages to distract Zabuza and panic Naruto. Hatake-san looks caught-out in a way that suggests he might have once been an ANBU that spied on Naruto’s house. Kurosaki-san finally pauses in his kata and looks for the source of the commotion.

“Everything okay over there?” he calls.

Zabuza-sama jumps to the ground and unsheathes Kubikiribocho. “You want to swing that sword against something other than air?” he calls clearly unwilling to accept no for an answer.

For all his teeth are flat, Kurosaki-san’s smiling is vicious enough to rival Zabuza-sama’s at his best. “You’re on.”

Naruto jumps to his feet. “I’ve got to get Sasuke!”

Zabuza-sama and Kurosaki-san square off in the middle of the yard. As their swords clash, Haku can see Zabuza-sama grinning in anticipation of a good fight. The contented feeling that overwhelmed Haku at dawn returns and this time Haku embraces his happiness wholeheartedly. For the moment, Haku’s most precious person is alive, safe, and happy, and so Haku can be no less.

**Author's Note:**

> If we’re considering chapters as character P.O.V.s, then this is Haku’s chapter despite all of the Ichigo stuff at the beginning. (Or, I wanted some world-building and Haku was happy to let me sit back and steal his thunder in a way Zabuza was not.)
> 
> When I was trying to find Kushina and Minato’s genin teams, I discovered there’s one screenshot of Minato as part of genin team and attached to that screenshot is the fan-theory that Teuchi was one of Minato’s teammates. I took that theory and ran with it.


End file.
